In a recent Twitter exchange, Sonic Frontiers director Morio Kishimoto assured a fan that future games wouldn’t necessarily follow the format of the latest Sonic game.

Sonic Frontiers has released to relative success, especially compared to recent 3D Sonic games like Sonic Forces. However, this success has worried fans that future games might all be open world.

One Japanese Twitter user wrote to Sonic Team member and Sonic Frontiers director Morio Kishimoto saying:

“I love the open zone gameplay in Sonic Frontiers and love to see it in most games but not again here. I miss the classic style of modern Sonic gameplay, so don’t overuse the open zone gameplay.”

Kishimoto responded to the fan and explained that he considered Sonic games to come in one of three styles or “generations”.

Sonic Frontiers represents the first third generation game, and while he might order them sequentially, he says one generation is no better or worse than the others.

“I defined Sonic Frontier as a third generation Sonic game, but that does not mean that all Sonic games will be third generation in the future,” Kishimoto said. “And I don’t think the first and second generation are inferior to the third generation. I think both generations are great and true Sonic games. Rest assured!”

This is an expected response, especially in the wake of Sonic Mania which recaptured the style and gameplay of the original 16-bit Sonic the Hedgehog games.

Sonic Frontiers is available now across Windows PC (via Steam), Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5. You can check out our review here!